Trump retreats from China tariffs amid trade discord
US President Donald Trump retreated from imposing tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods because of White House discord over trade strategy and concern about harming negotiations with North Korea, according to people briefed on the administration’s deliberations.
Trump also succumbed to pressure from farm-state Republicans, who heavily lobbied the White House to resolve its trade differences with China, which had especially targeted US agricultural products with planned retaliatory tariffs.
Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday that the administration’s plan to impose tariffs had been suspended, and Trump said on Twitter on Monday that the Chinese had agreed to purchase unspecified amounts of American farm products. Some of his loyalists led by former chief strategist Steven Bannon criticized the deal as a capitulation.
The agreement at least delays a trade war between the world’s two largest economies, a prospect that has rattled financial markets for months. But many of United States’ concerns
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will cut the import duty on passenger cars to 15% in a move that gives a boost to makers of luxury autos such as BMW AG and Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus unit.
The state council, China’s cabinet, has decided to reduce the levy from the current 25% that has been in place for more than a decade, according to people familiar with the plan, who asked not to be identified as
about China’s economic practices remain unresolved: its acquisition of American technologies; the country’s plans to subsidize the growth of advanced domestic industries such as artificial intelligence and clean energy; and US companies’ access to China’s markets.
Bannon blamed Mnuchin. Trump “changed the dynamic regarding China but in one weekend Secretary Mnuchin the information isn’t public.
A reduction in import duty follows a truce between US President Donald Trump’s administration and Chinese officials as they seek to defuse tensions and avert an all-out trade war. While the levy reduction could be claimed in some quarters as a concession to Trump and will be a boon to US carmakers such as Tesla Inc. and Ford Motor Co., the move will also end up benefiting European and Asian manufacturers from Daimler AG to Toyota.
BEIJING:China
has given it away,” he said in an interview. “Mnuchin has completely misread the geopolitical, military, and historical precedents, and what President Trump had done was finally put the Chinese on their back heels.”
Some White House officials blame poor coordination among the warring factions in Trump’s economic team for the retreat, according to several people briefed on the matter.